Your first Experiences with new BNW Leaders

Pedro is reliable and it takes a lot for him to backstab you.

Casimir is a massive douche, he pisses everyone off with his constant missionary spam and wanting Catholicism as world religion.

Shaka is weak after the first few eras, usually gets pushed around by others most of the game.

Only met Napoleon once and he was a wonder spamming powerhouse.

Ashburnipal is kinda meh, he seems to just struggle keeping up and ends up being some mid-sized power.

Maria is utterly terrible in the hands of the AI. Either gets eaten by someone else or has 2-3 cities in a corner somewhere.

Haven't seen the others that much yet.

After playing my second game:

Pocatello feels like a more peaceful version of Hiawatha. He still hogs all the space he can and puts cities in every nook and cranny, but doesn't seem like he wants to take conquer every weaker civ like Hiawatha. Likes science.

Shaka showed his true colors this game, taking out both Vienna and Brazil on his continent. Luckily Pocatello was strong enough to fight him off, so they ended up splitting the continent. Shaka was friendly and willing to trade for a while (cultural game as Casimir) but as soon as I adopted the freedom ideology, he denounced me. He had of course gone autocracy...

Forgot to mention I had Mt Kilamanjaro next to my third city. Every unit I make there has the fantastic high altitude promotion. Hills and rough terrain are cake. Goes really well with Pathfinders...

I've finally met all the AI players in my Marathon game. It's the Renaissance, and so far as I can tell, there have been no wars of consequence anywhere on the planet.

My continent:

Polynesia: Seems to be going tall and cultural.

Russia: Also seems to be going tall, and possibly diplomatic.

Brazil: Also tall. They aren't very cultural so far, so I don't know what their end game is. They did get huffy about my city placement near them. They have flatly refused to give me open borders.

Indonesia: Also going tall and cultural, which is a shame. They have an extended archipelago just to their south which they are neglecting.

Continent 2

Byzantium: They went semi-wide before being boxed in by Arabia. They have their own religion which is nice. Constantinople is just a hop over the deep water from my coastal cities, so they are a very profitable trade partner for me.

Arabia: They've been putting their Bazaars to good use with 12 Salts. Very Wide growth. They did not found a religion, so their UA has been spreading Sweden's Protestantism around. I'm not sure, but they seem to be aiming for Wide Cultural Victory.

Sweden: They seem to be Tall and Cultural. Alas, Gus won't DoF with me. I don't know why.

Continent 3

England: Poor London is on a landlocked sea. In G&K, they would have been wiped out by China long ago.

Netherlands: Seem to be going tall. It's a tight continent for 4 civs, so I can see why.

China: The only expander on that continent.

Japan: I suspect they got boxed in by China against the polar coast. In G&K, they would have been wiped out long ago.